Joe Bonham lies injured in a hospital bed. While conscious, Joe
thinks back over scenes from his past: the night of his father's death
and the night before he left his girlfriend Kareen to go to World War I.
Before his family moved to Los Angeles, Joe grew up in Shale City, a
small town in Colorado. He remembers small-town memories and images,
such as the food his mother would prepare, the first time an airplane
came to Shale City, and the night he lost his girlfriend, Diane, to his
best friend, Bill Harper.

The narrative shifts from the past to the present as Joe
thinks regretfully about his decision to join a war that was not any of
his business. Slowly, Joe begins to realize that he has been severely
injured and treated in a hospital, which is where he currently lies. Joe
gradually feels that his arms and legs have been amputated.
Furthermore, he realizes that he cannot speak, see, hear, or smell
because he no longer has a face—only a mask covering where his face used
to be. Joe wonders bitterly abut the doctors' motivation for saving him
at all.

Joe continues to live inside his head, reliving memories and
terrorized by nightmares. He wonders how he can even tell whether he is
awake or asleep. Joe thinks about his father kept beautiful gardens in a
vacant city lot and fed his children well, although he was never
officially a success because he never made any money. Joe continues to
think bitterly about the foolishness of fighting and dying in a war that
had nothing to do with him, and about the deceitfulness of abstract
words like "liberty," "democracy," "freedom," and "decency."

Time passes, and Joe tries to occupy his mind with stories,
facts, and figures. One day, he realizes that he should use the skin he
has left—the skin of his neck that is not covered by blankets—to try to
sense the outside world. Joe develops a plan to wait for the feeling of
sunrise so that he can tally the nurses' visits and count the passing of
the days. A year later, Joe has accomplished his goal and counted up
365 days. He celebrates the New Year in his mind, just as he has
celebrated each Sunday of his year with an imagined walk in the woods.

In Joe's fourth year, he is amazed to feel that the hospital
staff is prepared him to be shown to visitors. When he feels the
visitors lay something on his chest, he realizes he is being given a
medal. Joe becomes angry and shudders in his bed, trying to remove his
mask to show the visitors how much damage men like him sustained in the
war while generals emerged unscathed. Joe feels the vibrations of the
men leaving the room. An idea comes upon him that if he can sense the
outside world through vibrations, perhaps he might also communicate to
the outside world with vibrations. Joe begins tapping SOS in Morse code
with his head, but his regular nurse assumes that he is having seizures
and sedates him.

Joe awakens from his sedation to realize that he has a new day
nurse. The new day nurse tries to communicate with Joe by spelling out
"MERRY CHRISTMAS" on his chest. Joe signals with his head that he
understands, and he begins trying to tap Morse code to her. After trying
to appease his tapping by making him more comfortable in various ways,
the nurse eventually realizes he is trying to communicate in words.

The nurse goes to get a man who understands Morse code.
This man taps onto Joe's forehead the words "WHAT DO YOU WANT?" Joe
spends some time thinking about the inappropriateness of the question
and then tries to think about what in fact it is that he wants. Joe asks
in Morse code to be taken around the outside world as an educational
exhibit on the realities of war. The man listens to his response and
returns a while later to tap into his head, "WHAT YOU ASK IS AGAINST
REGULATIONS."

The man continues tapping other messages, but Joe is no longer
paying attention. He is still trying to process this betrayal on the
part of the people for whom he fought a war when he feels the hospital
staff sedating him again. Joe taps the question "why? why?
why?"—wondering why they will not let him talk or acknowledge that there
is still a person inside his mangled body. Joe suddenly realizes that
they are afraid to let him out, to let other men see him as the "new
messiah of the battlefields." If other men see Joe, they would no longer
agree to fight in wars—especially wars ordered by the upper classes,
but fought only by the lower classes of peaceful, working men.